Incidents of pipelines bursting at Hero Honda Chowk, Signature Towers, Rajiv Chowk and IFFCO Chowk were fairly frequent throughout 2017 owing to the construction of underpasses at these junctions.
Leakage of a pipeline - Representative image
At a time when parts of Gurgaon are already reeling under water shortage, leakage of a master pipeline at the Signature Towers junction on Monday added to the ongoing crisis.
Although this site had suffered from leakage issues even in the past, no concrete solutions have been found to fix the problem once and for all.
When the issue was raised before officials of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), they just passed the buck on each other.
“Owing to the construction of an underpass at the junction, the pipelines at the spot have been regularly experiencing leakages. The NHAI is fixing the pipeline,” Sandeep Dahiya, executive engineer, GMDA, said.
NHAI officials said that the pipeline suffers from frequent leakages owing to an inherent defect in it.
“The NHAI is fixing the pipeline. Leakages have been occurring due to the construction of the underpass at Signature Towers. The GMDA has also installed a sub-standard pipeline,” Saurabh Singhal, traffic transportation expert and head of the underpasses built by the NHAI on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, said. “We will fix the pipeline by either tonight or by tomorrow (Saturday) morning,” Singhal added.
On November 26, 2017, a water pipeline at the same point had allegedly burst after the pipe had developed cracks due to the ongoing construction of an underpass, which leads commuters towards Atul Kataria Chowk and Huda City Centre Metro station.
Incidents of pipelines bursting at Hero Honda Chowk, Signature Towers, Rajiv Chowk and IFFCO Chowk were fairly frequent throughout 2017 owing to the construction of underpasses at these junctions.
Last week, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), had even issued a warning to the contractor hired by NHAI that they will file a police complaint in the event of any further damage to their master pipelines.
